Boathouse x Farm Club
On a warm, sunny summer afternoon, Gary, owner of Farm Club, and Logan, the restaurant manager, greeted Emmy and Dave as they walked into the bustling dining room. Gary wanted to discuss creating a collaboration wine for Farm Club to serve throughout the upcoming year. Historically, they have loved the Pinot Gris from Boathouse Vineyards and were excited to work with that fruit again.
While the Farm Club team are masters at growing food, hospitality, farming, and fermenting beer and cider, they entrusted the creative vision for the wine to Boathouse winemaker, Emmy Neighbors. The concept came together quickly: Boathouse would craft a textured, medium-bodied, fruit-driven wine with a beautiful golden hue that would pair with Farm Club’s farm-to-table menu.
A Little About the Fruit and Vineyard
Boathouse’s 22-acre vineyard sits in the heart of Leelanau. In 2025, Boathouse began the paperwork to become certified organic. The vineyard grows 11 different grape varieties, and all of the fruit is hand-harvested each year.
As expected, the 2025 growing season brought a few curveballs: long stretches of extremely high humidity, a cold and wet October mixed in with some dreamlike 75-degree, sunny days. After several weeks of sampling, the Pinot Gris was harvested on October 10th in excellent condition.
The fruit was immediately whole-cluster pressed and pressed hard to achieve the desired winemaking style. The wine fermented in stainless steel for about 11 days. The ferment was lovingly nicknamed “Gary,” and it moved along at a steady, gentle pace.
Aging & Elevage
After fermentation, the wine was racked into two different vessels. Sixty percent was aged in a concrete cube, while forty percent was aged in an Austrian acacia barrel.
Acacia wood is distinctive because it is far more subtle than oak. Rather than imparting overt structure or spice, it lends delicate floral and honeyed notes, along with a smooth, rounded texture. The concrete portion preserved the fresh, ripe fruit character of the wine while also contributing texture without adding flavor.
After about four months in their respective vessels, the two lots were blended back together in stainless steel. The wine was then cold stabilized using glycol, chilling it to approximately 29°F.